Safeman & Cannon for the benefit of refugees

Safeman AB, established in 1939, later switched gears to focus on production interior details for the automotive industry.

Today, they cover everything from customized details to larger volume units and pre-assembled products.

Many textile or plastic shelters used in refugee camps often have a short lifespan, as little as six months, before the impact of sun, rain and wind calls for their replacement. Unfortunately, refugees can stay in camps for several years.

This meant that the parts would need to withstand the harsh environmental conditions in the long term so that families could have a more stable home.

We are glad to have contributed to this project. Through this complete solution — from the technological concept to the production plant, including tooling and prototyping services — we once more confirmed our mission of providing complete and integrated turnkey plants. When fully operative, this plant can produce panels for approximately 30,000 shelters per year.

We also offered laboratory facilities to supply the desired prototypes for the field tests. The suggested thermoforming solution aimed to produce a completely trim-less panel: no peripheral scrap is generated in this project, contributing to economic and environment friendliness of the process.
Read more about the project below.

The IKEA Foundation provided funding and management support for this project while UNHCR brought the know-how and field experience. Better Shelter, a social enterprise, developed the prototypes and specifications for houses that are divided into modules and can be delivered in flat packs — a well-known IKEA concept — to simplify transport.

The houses are designed to be easily set up and taken apart while also easy to carry. A tubular steel structure, similar to those used for camping tents, supports modular paneling elements for the roof and walls: these panels, made by thermoforming rectangular sheets of expanded TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin), boast excellent resistance to UVs and rain. The lightweight panels are fixed to one another through simple plastic buttons and, when installed, guarantee a degree of thermal insulation and complete protection against light, wind and rain.

Each house is fitted with a flexible type of solar power unit, which is sufficient to power one lamp included with the house, and a USB port. The USB option may appear odd, but it shows the high conceptual level behind the project: the refugees not only need comfort, security and dignity, but also a way to communicate with the rest of the world, and their mobile phones, tablets and computers plug into the same four-pin ports that we all use.

The prototype shelters have been tested in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Iraq. The families who live in the shelter have had a direct say in how the product is developed, contributing their experience to this collaborative process.

The project, started in 2008, required a number of refinements prior to defining the ideal shelter. When the decision was made to use thermoformed plastic walls and roofs, NORTEC-Cannon, our agent for Europe’s northern countries, was consulted by Safeman to supply an industrial solution to provide the high number of parts logically and quickly. Safeman designs and manufactures products and details in materials such as plastic, textile, foil, leather and metal, and were heavily involved from the beginning in developing this innovative shelter.

We thank the IKEA Foundation (www.ikeafoundation.org) for parts of the article and for pictures of the shelters.